Exclusive economic zone of Canada

[5] There are issues with how to manage straddling and migratory fish stocks which are vulnerable for high seas fisheries that operate outside the EEZ.

There was a Canadian initiative to resolve this global problem which gained enough support from other countries for another United Nations Conference.

In some areas the issue of foreign fleets maximizing their catches on the high seas was replaced by coastal fisheries trying to do the same.

[8] This caused a fast erosion of the concept "freedom of the seas" (all countries can freely use the oceans for navigation and fishing).

The marine life and natural resources in the Atlantic zone of Canada caused many foreign fishing vessels to exploit it.

Since 1958 there was a dramatic increase of vessels from East Europe who joined West Europeans while the Canadian fishing fleet remained a stable size.

[11] The International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries (ICNAF) which existed since the 1940s could not prevent the rapid decline of fish stock.

The Exclusive Economic Zone section of UNCLOS is described in Part V. It provides a "comprehensive framework for contemporary uses of the sea."

[18] In 1992, the Canada–France Maritime Boundary Case, which centered on the EEZ around the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, was decided by an arbitral tribunal which concurred on the whole with the arguments put forth by Canada.